FLY-HALF Thai Hayward scored a last gasp penalty to secure a 17-15 victory over local rivals Berry Hill in the Gloucester Premier.
Berry Hill were the first to show but they missed a relatively straight forward penalty to take an early lead and this was punished by Ross at the end of the first quarter as they opened the scoring.
A dominant scrum by Ross set up a ruck on the five-yard line and with the visitor pack in retreat prop Louis Morgan pounced on the loose ball and crashed through the defence to score, converted by Hayward.
A penalty on the Ross 22-metres line saw Berry Hill peg Ross back to 7-3 going into the half-time break.
The ferocity of the tackling and ball carrying did not relent after the break, and it was Ross that forced the next score with hooker Josh Element putting Chris Price free to score a converted effort.
Berry Hill refused to lie down and camped on the Ross line before eventually scoring to bring the score back to 14-8.
With less than 10 minutes remaining the visitors scored again and added the conversion to take a slender 15-14 lead.
Ross calmly regained possession after the kick off, before a number of rucks led to an infringed and a penalty 40 yards out for the hosts.
Hayward stepped up and calmly sent the ball between the uprights.
Ross are back at home on Saturday with a 2.30pm kick off against Old Richians from Gloucester.
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